Breaking Down the Walls, a program by Ignite2Unite, took place in the Peery Center from Jan. 23 to 25 during school hours. According to the Ignite2Unite website, BDTW creates a safe environment for students to build empathy and understanding through a “play, trust, learn” model. BDTW featured bonding activities and friendly competition to develop deeper connections between students who may not have previously known each other. 

While The Campanile commends administrative efforts to bring the student body closer, we think the event was marred by excessive administrative pressure placed on students to attend the event and recruit for it. We also hope this effort to improve Paly school culture will not be a one-time occurrence, as a six-hour program is not sufficient to enact lasting change on campus.

The conflict between attending BDTW and coursework was also a problem. Despite Principal Brent Kline’s appeals for teachers to lighten their course load the week of the event, many did not, creating even more stress for attending students. In addition, some students, including Social Justice Pathway seniors, were required to attend BDTW as part of their grade. This is unfair to those who would rather attend their other classes. Social Justice classes, for example, only account for English and history credit, so SJP students who attended BDTW were forced to miss their other classes. 

Not only can this potentially lead to students falling behind in class, but forcing someone to attend BDTW decreases their desire to fully participate and discourages them from enjoying the event, contradicting the point of BDTW.

In another administrative mistake, all members of ASB were required to attain 10 signups as part of their grade, according to an anonymous ASB member who only agreed to be interviewed if their name wasn’t used out of fear of repercussions. ASB was also not notified of BDTW until Jan. 11, only a few days after coming back from winter break.

Members of ASB should not have been forced to help execute something they were barely involved in on such short notice. Additionally, the excess stress placed on ASB members having to essentially beg students to sign up places an unfair burden on them and takes away from the authenticity of the activity.

Kline does deserve credit for trying. Appearing on InFocus, he told the student body that he asked teachers to reduce their course load for the week of BDTW, including pushing back tests so students could attend the event without missing much. But The Campanile is aware of teachers who had scheduled unit tests during the week of Breaking Down The Walls, forcing students to choose between attending the event or having to retake tests on their personal time.

Additionally, Economics and Advanced Placement Macroeconomics teacher Grant Blackburn told The Campanile that while he knew about Breaking Down the Walls, he only learned the specifics of the event in January, minimizing the amount of time he had to change his curriculum. 

Since he said he didn’t have enough time to alter his class schedule, he gave a test during the week of Breaking Down the Walls.

Kline also told the student body in his InFocus message that Breaking Down The Walls would be nothing like Challenge Day, an event held at Greene Middle School where students shared personal information about sensitive topics with their peers.

However, Breaking Down The Walls contained a “Cross the Line” activity toward the end of the day that asked students to cross a line if a certain scenario fit them. 

Questions for this event included, “Is one of your parents deceased?” and “Have you ever saved someone’s life?”, bearing a striking resemblance to Challenge Day without any prior warning.

Questions of this caliber are not only inappropriate and overly invasive for unsuspecting students but also fail to consider how peers might view or judge those who confirm incredibly personal facts and cross the line. 

Such questions consequently fail to help accomplish the school’s goal of creating deep relationships in a safe space. Instead, they do the opposite. 

The Saratoga Falcon, a student newspaper at Saratoga High School, reported that Breaking Down the Walls cost their school $40,000 for one day of training and four days of the program. However, in an email sent to The Campanile, Kline said the event costed $12,800 to host. Even if the cost wasn’t $40,000, this is still too much money to spend on something students only attended for a single day.

While the idea behind BDTW – to foster a more inclusive and closer school community – was praiseworthy, the number of teachers who didn’t change their plans for the week, students being forced to be involved, misleading marketing and the likely considerable cost resulted does not outweigh the benefits of BDTW for The Campanile.

In the future, we encourage administrators to not only involve ASB and the student body in the planning process sooner for events like this one but also to refrain from putting pressure on students to attend them. 

By planning further in advance and opening up the event to only those who are genuinely interested, the chance of students being deeply impacted greatly increases.

Editors Note: The online version of this editorial has been updated to reflect Principal Brent Kline’s response about the cost of the event.